Atari ST with TerribleFire TF536 Runs MiNT 1.19
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2021
- I recently repaired and upgraded this Atari 1040STFM by replacing the floppy mech with a gotek, adding an Ultrasatan hard disk interface that uses SD cards for storage, 4meg of ST ram, 8meg of TT ram, and then installed my TerribleFire TF536. The TF536 has 64meg of TT ram and a 68030 processor running at 50mhz.
Primarily this video is addressed to the folks developing the MiNT operating system. MiNT is a unix-like, multitasking, multi-user operating system.
I used my Mega4 all through college in the late 80's early 90's and I was doing fully published reports, with embedded graphics, columns, and footers. I was running circles around the 386 computers of the day. If you have the socket for a blitter it made a big difference between mine and my buddies 1040.
I had a 16mghz accelerator in mine in highschool running circles around windows pc's in 1988. TROLL BBS , 2 lines 2400 baud, 2x48 MB drives online.
Very nice setup, Jeffrey. I am hoping to install this version of MiNT on my heavily upgraded TT soon.
You will do well with your TT I am sure. If you have an FPU installed, you will be in excellent shape to install FreeMiNT or EasyMiNT. I'm artificially barred from them for lack of FPU (no build for me), but your are smack dab in the supported circle.
"Ultrasatan". I love the nerdy names.
This is advanced level Atari ST.
Nice video. How current is your MiNT version? I would love to own a falcon or 1040 but the closet I will probably come is my Vampire V4.
You need NVDI badly!
My new video shows a better setup. It is MiNT 1.04 with AES4, not as fast as I'd like, but lotsa candy.
Anyone know where I can get one of these accelerators? TF536 or a Falcon lol been looking for one for a while
This is very impressive, but I can't see me ever doing this to my old 1040 STE.
My first DTP was page stream on an Atari 520STFM using, HP 500 printer and Sony Trinitron using a homemade skart or AV I can't remember, just know it wasn't RF.
Jeff, does the TF also work well with TOS? I would like to install this in either my Mega ST/2 or 1040STE if possible.
I have Tos 2.06 running as well, just fine. I like EmuTos especially because it requires no HDDdriver to boot to hard disk, but 2.06 works just as it should. I've not tried flashing a lower version, like 1.04. This 030 upgrade, the "Terrible Fire 536", requires a bios that is 030 processor-aware. I'm using a Cloudy TOS board with a Storm (8megabyte ram) decoder. The TF536 has 64meg of ram onboard it, so the 8meg on the Storm is superfluous, but this way, if the TF536 did NOT work the first time, I would still have a 12 meg STFM with EMuTOS 1.0.1 and TOS 2.06, a still worthy result. As it is, the whole shebang works, 030 with 72meg of ram...
Hey Jeffrey - how compatible with games is this 68030 on the ST? I'd like to mess around with writing some code, and the higher end desktop/etc would be great, but would I also be able to run regular software. Thanks!
I tested quite a few games recently and was pleasantly surprised. Some won't run of course, but that may be because I'm using EMUTOS 1.0.1 rather than TOS 1.02 or 1.04. I built the thing as a TOS/MiNT machine and find that it actually DOES run games and runs them well. At a guess, the newer the game, the more likely it will run, as it will be written with later versions of TOS, and later versions of hardware in mind.
I bought mine from Ebay. It shipped from England. These are all advertised for the Amiga, but the TF536 and TF534 will work in the Atari if you upload new code to the accelerator. PM me and I'll help you get started. I have the programmer tool to make the change.
hello, I'm interested, I have a tf 354 but not function with my mega st 1. Help please
silly question : is there any emulator out there able to mimic this kind of conf (TF536) ?
Yes. Aranym and Hatari both are configurable to mimic this setup and much more, to include custom video hardware and high resolutions and color depths. I'm attempting this in hardware fairly soon; making an adapter for my machine to run an ET4000 ISA svga card.
what is necessary to make the TF536 work on the 1040? is it plug and play or?
You need the Atari version of the firmware : www.exxoshost.co.uk/forum/download/file.php?id=14403&sid=0399e9dd5183fa86de1e28574a304e47
And you need the programmer cable to connect your pc to the TerribleFire536 and upload the firmware. Exxos is working on an Atari-ready version of the TF536, but until that becomes available, the ones intended for the Amiga machines will work once flashed with the appropriate Atari firmware. You also need to upgrade the TOS on your Atari ST to version 2.06 or higher or EMUTOS, which is what I'm using in this demonstration. I added the TOS upgrade via a pair of plug-in devices (processor socket in a stack) called STORM ST (provides 8meg of memory and a TOS decoder) and CLOUDY (Provides two flashable TOS roms), I got EMUTOS 1.0.1 with TOS 2.06, but you can change that using a flasher program right on the ST itself. Hope this helps!
TerribleFire TF536 sounds great for the RAM / CPU side of the Atari ST, but the system also needs video upgrades, and has since the 80s and the letdown of the basic STe upgrade.
Is there a graphics upgrade for the Atari ST computers? Surely that cartridge slot would allow a drastic improvement in graphics hardware?
I'm presently working on VOFA, which is a German acronym. It adapts an ISA video card to the ST. I cover it to some degree in a separate video.
there was also VME adapter for regular ST, so you could use NOVA card. I needed a soldering and would not fit inside the ST case obviously. I saw one ST having this upgrade in early 90s.
I would be curious if you use these machines today for any sort of serious modern work, word processing included. I still have my Commodore64 systems but still relegated to the closet & also needs some repair work. But I also have several vintage PC's, as far back as 8088's. But of course, my main workhorse today just has be an Intel i5 laptop from 2010, as it has features required today, i.e. internet, usb tether, scrcpy and/or wifi (from smartphone), serious 3d gaming. And obviously word processing & other office tools. I did use my C-64 as my main computer at the university in the late 1980's-early 1990's, using GEOS64 & a 4 MHz accelerator, to do -- you guessed it -- word processing, for papers. Also used the SID for music. And yes, 3D gaming, which worked much better with the accelerator, which didn't really help when I should have been doing college homework instead. :)
I'd actually like to. A few non-user functions it could easily serve are as a server for various network services: TelnetD, FtpD, SshD, a mail server perhaps, an HTTPD server to serve web pages. I know that sounds hyperbolic but it is something I've done already with a much less capable Atari, in 1999 with a stock Mega 4 ST and a modem, then with an EtherNec I built. Trouble I'm having with replicating and bettering that particular set of services is my lack of network connectivity. The MiNT direction has gone from a Unix-centric to a TOS/GEM-centric system to the point that a lot of those tools either don't work or are undocumented (if you are not actually writing the code yourself, aren't a member of MiNT developers). The TF536 is a very available, affordable and very powerful accelerator for the Atari ST. It is a shame that the MiNT fellows don't see the potential there of growing their community by providing a build-target for 68020-060 Atari's that have no FPU. I chose TF536 for it's memory. The previous iteration, TF534, had an FPU but only four meg of memory. That's a big big hit as compared to the 536's 64-megabytes. It just makes the best sense. At present I'm working on cobbling together a working system with Xaaes and a fine GUI, as you see, and have gotten the machine to return pings from other machines on my network. Woot! Still, I'm kinda stymied for the command-line utilities. I find one here and another there, but there's no compilation of them, no package I can use due to having no FPU. It is frustrating. I'll keep you posted and I appreciate your input.
Did the 1024 come with the blitter? It has been so long now i forget. I know it was standard on the ste.
Nope. There's a spot for one on the board, but no socket or chip.
@@Technoid_Mutant just that i remember how much snappier the graphics were with that, that might be why it seemed slower than i remember. Been over 25 years since i last did any work on an st. I wrote Artist Freehand on it, a graphics app like the more popular canvas.
@@Barcrest I'm working on an ET4000 card for this machine, have the card already and am waiting for the parts to build the interface. That'll give me much better video in all respects.
Hi, very cool video. How come the gem looks so slow? did you install NVDI on it?
I was getting familiar with the software and didn't have NVDI setup correctly. It makes a HUGE difference in performance.
I didn't know a TF536 could be fitted to a standard Atari ST. Is there a link to a resource to assist with this magic?
Check out Exxon’s forums. You’ll need an Atari ST compatible firmware for the TF536 to work with the st. Not useable on an STe..Mega STs are hit and miss due to noisy motherboards.
Yes. There is firmware for the Atari. You need an Altera platform cable and some free software. You plug the TF536 into a processor socket and give the machine power, then use the Altera cable to upload the new firmware. I can supply the firmware or you can do a google search for the file: "tf536_2019_06_14_alpha.zip". This is the version my TF536 is now running and the only version I'm aware of. Great that it works so well!
The firmware changes the personality of the CPLD chip on the TF536 which does the talking over the CPU bus, handles memory onboard TF536, the onboard IDE controller and more.
Hi Jeff
Except the firmware update you mentioned for the 536, is there anything else I must do? I have a 520 stfm and a 1040 ste but As I understand, it cannot be done on an ste, correct?
Hm... it does not look so much faster then plain ST...
Why?
This edition of software running is quite old. Since, I've been working on a modern release of MiNT, version 1.19. It is dramatically faster than in this video, Xaaes with Teradesk. I'm still green on how to dress it up, figuring that out. When I have it really tricked out on new warez I'll share.
Is it working on Atari Mega STE?
Unfortunately not. The STE has a 16mhz bus clock the TerribleFire is not built for.
Have you considered vanillamint?
KEMD was pretty well documented as to how to install and configure it. The same isn't true with FreeMiNT. But, FreeMint is still being developed while other flavors don't seem to have the same support. So I picked FreeMint. The snapshot does run well, it isn't perfect and doesn't include the gamut of Unix tools. I'll take another look at Vanilla for sure.
@@Technoid_Mutant kemd is very very old. From that time you should get easymint, but i am not sure you'll be able to upgrade the kernel to recent version
You seem to have a very bare bones mint install and you're complaining about missing commands?
Try this: atari.grossmaggul.de/home.php?lang=en&headline=EasyMiNT&texte=easymint
EasyMiNT won't install on this machine. I get "Wrong CPU!" and exit. This is the only distro I've found that works. Games work well. If you have any advice on how to add a full set of command-line utilities to this Mint I'd be THRILLED!, and if you have a fix for EasyMint install Oh do tell! :-)
@@Technoid_Mutant Are you trying to install it with TF enabled? As far as I can see EasyMint requires 030 CPU.
@@sqward Yes, with the TF536 installed.
That's a CP\M based OS, it isn't going to have most of the *NIX toolchain. Like chown - it appears to be running a FAT-like FS, and FAT has no concept of a file owner, so chown would make no sense.
MiNT supplies a posix layer, a unix command structure. The filesystems in use are indeed Fat16 for several drives, but for two the filesystem is ext2 as those are multi-gig partitions.
@@Technoid_Mutant then that is weird. Does it recognize owner/group/world on the ext2 partitions?
@@ronslayton5270 Yes. It is a pre-linux 'linux'. Minix filesystem is also supported.
FIRST !!
atarowca wal z gumowca
not bad for a glorified word processor, pretty crazy that you need all those upgrades to be a poor imitation of an amiga 500
Computer architecture has no place for bias. Each machine and each circumstance needs be measured individually. Comparisons are helpful of course. The Atari ST developed an open-source multitasking operating system which took lessons from AmigaDOS while avoiding some inherent pitfalls. No machine should be judged in vaccuum.
Not true - the ST had some advantages back in the day over the 500. Ironically the single tasking OS made it better for real-time applications - music production, or other control hardware. The monochrome 640x400 mode was also much easier on the eyes (72 hz) for work like shown in this video. The ST also had a fast and functional disk port built into the back (ACSI) that required extra hardware - -the ST Disk access was also usually faster than an A500 with equipment available back in the day.
Fun fact - there was a computer created as an expanded ST (faster CPU on narrow bus, few HW upgrades here and there). It was called Hawk or something - not quite sure atm.
Sparrow?
For the geek factor I prefer the Atari ST over the Amiga. I never could afford an Amiga until last year I bought an A2000. I stuck a ton of upgrades in that, it left the shop with a 68030@50mhz, 13 megs of ram (1meg chip, eight megs zorro II, and 4 megs of zorro III memory, what was then the newest kickstart and OS version, with video cables, converter, you name it. It was a sweet machine, but the ST is a lot more hackable. In 1999 I had a Mega 4 running MiNT with an ethernet card (EtherNec) jacked into a handmade adapter. It was running various servers. Very cool. Try that with the Amiga and you'll get bogged down in configurations right quick. That is if you can afford the network adapter and the Amiga itself.